Photography- one photo a day

A couple of pics from my first ever solo packing experience. It wasn't without some issues, and lessons learned, but we both came out unscathed and had a good time on the mountain.



 
A couple of pics from my first ever solo packing experience. It wasn't without some issues, and lessons learned, but we both came out unscathed and had a good time on the mountain.



Cool pics! Forgive my ignorance but were you packing out meat or was this a practice run?
 
A couple of pics from my first ever solo packing experience. It wasn't without some issues, and lessons learned, but we both came out unscathed and had a good time on the mountain.




That's cool. A hunting bud and I were talking about doing something like that last weekend. Do you own the horse, and if not, did the company you rented from deliver the animal to the trail head?

Gar
 
That's cool. A hunting bud and I were talking about doing something like that last weekend. Do you own the horse, and if not, did the company you rented from deliver the animal to the trail head?

Gar

She is my first pack mule, and I'm just getting into pack stock. This was my first trip out with her. I don't know of any places that rent mules or horses, and to be honest I'm not sure that would be a good idea. As someone who is just starting this process, all I can say is there is a lot to learn and worry about on the mountain with a pack animal.
 
That turned out to be a most amazing day, bulls everywhere!

Here's a pic of where they hit the ground:



First off I'll come clean, the front bull that's only partially shown in the other pic is a raghorn :). While these guys were engaged with the four in the pic my cousin and I killed a 5x5 and a 6x6 3/4 of a mile further up the canyon.

My 5x5:



We thought we heard them shooting and sure enough we found this when we came down with the first load, they said there were many more bulls in the herd! When the pic was taken they had just got ready to start the pull out and they slid these four a mile to the truck with horses. The guy in the middle is my brother, the guy in the front owned the horses and his sister killed the raghorn and took this pic.



But my favorite memory of that day came later that afternoon on the second trip when my son shot his first big game animal, a perfect little 4x4 mule deer! He made a dead center heart shot at 150 yards with a 6mm-284.



My brother and his buddies got their four as well as the deer to the truck with horses while my cousin and I packed and sledded out his 6x6. By afternoon the trail looked like a perfect bobsled run, albeit with a few nasty creek crossings but the elk got soaked in the creek during crossing and spread water down the trail that turned to ice instantly, kinda of a Montana redneck Zamboni. My brother took a load of elk and my son home that night but came back the next day and helped me drag my 5x5 out which was fairly easy on the slick trail. In one day we killed a 4x4 muley, a 4x4 elk, a 5x5 elk, three 6x6 elk and a 7x7 elk!

I have a few more pics from that day but we didn't take nearly enough, this was in the 35mm era so it wasn't nearly as easy as now and that previous pic is the only one of that day that I have scanned.

Three years later came this "Once in a lifetime-the ONE that got away"!



 
Last edited:
That turned out to be a most amazing day, bulls everywhere! First off I'll come clean, the bull that's only partially shown in the front is a raghorn :). While these guys were engaged with the four in the pic my cousin and I killed a 5x5 and a 6x6 3/4 of a mile further up the canyon. We thought we heard them shooting and sure enough we found this when we came down with the first load, they said there were many more bulls in the herd! When the pic was taken they had just got ready to start the pull out and they slid these four a mile to the truck with horses. The guy in the middle is my brother, the guy in the front owned the horses and his sister killed the raghorn and took this pic. But my favorite memory of that day came later that afternoon on the second trip when my son shot his first big game animal, a perfect little 4x4 mule deer! He made a dead center heart shot at 150 yards with a 6mm-284. My brother and his buddies got their four as well as the deer to the truck with horses while my cousin and I packed and sledded out his 6x6. By afternoon the trail looked like a perfect bobsled run, albeit with a few nasty creek crossings but the elk got soaked in the creek during crossing and spread water down the trail that turned to ice instantly, kinda of a Montana redneck Zamboni. My brother took a load of elk and my son home that night but came back the next day and helped me drag my 5x5 out which was fairly easy on the slick trail. In one day we killed a 4x4 muley, a 4x4 elk, a 5x5 elk, three 6x6 elk and a 7x7 elk!

I have a few more pics from that day but we didn't take nearly enough, this was in the 35mm era so it wasn't nearly as easy as now and that previous pic is the only one of that day that I have scanned.

Three years later came this "Once in a lifetime-the ONE that got away"!


Sounds like an awesome day, congrats!
 
19393665563_e5070395e2_b.jpg
 
Thanks guys! Living in Montana left me with some amazing memories. Now I live in NORCAL and my brother is up in AK.

Denali from my brothers cabin:



A few suppers at the cabin:

Grayling.



Silver salmon.



Moose tenderloin.




The grave of Robert Lee Knapp in Toklat:



Not sure what the story is with that, he died in 1976 but Toklat was wiped out many years before when the river changed it's course.
 
Back
Top